With season 4 out now, we thought we'd celebrate Seasons 1-3 of the dystopian sci-fi anthology series by ranking our favourite episodes.
For more Black Mirror, you can check out our spoiler-free review of season 4 in the meantime. You can also watch a video version of this ranking list here.
Men Against Fire (Season 3, Episode 5)
Laurie Sparham/Netflix
Image: Laurie Sparham/Netflix
We kick off our list with the military dystopia of 'Men Against Fire.' In a post-apocalyptic Denmark, an unnamed military organisation is hunting and killing a mutated human population unaffectionately nicknamed 'roaches.' This being Black Mirror though, things aren't quite as simple as that, and the episode dives head first into the arena of hi-tech warfare and its philosophical consequences on the world.
While it's not a bad episode by any stretch of the imagination, it's place on this list is largely down to the heavy-handed way in which it treats its central theme and the fact that it reveals its hand way too early.
The Waldo Moment (Season 2, Episode 3)
Image: Channel 4
The murky world of British politics is sent up in 'The Waldo Moment,' our number 12 entry. This slice of election madness tells the tale of Jamie, a failed comedian who is also the voice and digital puppeteer of a cartoon bear named, you guessed it, Waldo. Coerced by his producer into running for parliament as Waldo, Jamie finds himself way in over his head as his election campaign takes an unexpected turn.
The episode is totally fine, but doesn't stand up to the high quality of the rest of Black Mirror as it descends into hammy parody towards the end. But its defining virtue is that series creator, Charlie Brooker, compared it to Trump's 2016 presidential campaign with the Black Mirror Twitter account tweeting out: 'This isn't an episode. This isn't marketing. This is reality.'
Metalhead (Season 4, Episode 5)
Image: Netflix
Set against a post-apocalyptic backdrop, 'Metalhead' explores the devastating consequences of sentient robotics. At its core, it's a relentless chase movie with central character, Bela, on the run from a ruthlessly efficient killer robot dog. Metalhead is a tight, terse thriller, playing out like a hyper-condensed version of The Terminator. However, while it convinces with its atmospheric world-building and brutal action, the end result lacks the dark social commentary that we're used to from Black Mirror.
Hated In The Nation (Season 3, Episode 6)
Image: Laurie Sparham/Netflix
People tend to forget that when they write mean things about others on the internet, they're often talking about a real person. Brooker and co. took this idea one step further in 'Hated In The Nation,' where mean tweets and social media hashtags could be weaponised to kill those who fall foul to the public's ire. If you watch this episode and read Jon Ronson's So You've Been Publicly Shamed, you may never want to use social media ever again…
Arkangel (Season 4, Episode 2)
Image: Netflix
Helicopter parenting is put in the spotlight for the Jodie Foster-directed Arkangel. Arkangel has all the hallmarks of a classic episode of Black Mirror, setting up a central technology--the Arkangel Initiative--before unleashing it on an unassuming protagonist who slowly uses it to destroy their own life. In this case, we follow overprotective mum Marie as she uses Arkangel to keep tabs on her daughter, Sara. This starts off innocently enough, but things go sideways as Sara grows up. This is where the episode mines some seriously dark material as series creator and writer Charlie Brooker explores the various abuses of power the Arkangel software affords Marie. This all culminates in perhaps the most cringe-worthy scene in any Black Mirror episode yet, where a desperate Marie accidentally watches her daughter having sex after worrying about her whereabouts. What follows is even worse, and it's an uncompromising look at the perils of parenting. While it falls a little flat in its slow, deliberate pacing, Arkangel is still a vintage episode of Black Mirror.
Be Right Back (Season 2, Episode 1)
Image: Channel 4
In 'Be Right Back', Martha's boyfriend Ash dies in an accident. Unable to move past her grief, and discovering that she's pregnant, Martha uploads Ash's information, including photos, videos, and his social media profiles to create a virtual Ash. She goes one step further and downloads him onto a blank robot body, just like that episode of Futurama, but discovers that the new, fake Ash isn't the same as the old, real one. I guess technology just isn't a patch on the real deal.
Playtest (Season 3, Episode 2)
Image: Laurie Sparham/Netflix
You might not know that series creator Charlie Brooker and Dan Trachtenberg, who directed this episode, were former game journalists. But that explains why 'Playtest' is all about video games, specifically horror games that really get under your skin.
If you thought Resident Evil 7 was bad in VR, how's about a game that scans your brain to find out what terrifies you most? 'Playtest' is one of Black Mirror's freakiest episodes, but it is peppered with some hot video game Easter eggs.
Crocodile (Season 4, Episode 3)
Image: Netflix
Ostensibly a police-procedural--albeit without the police--'Crocodile' is all about the shady practice of using people's memories as evidence. It has two different narrative threads--one involving an insurance investigation, the other a murder cover-up--that come crashing together in such a horrific, inevitable fashion that it hits you like a punch to the gut. And the bleakness doesn't stop there. Director John Hillcoat--whose previous work includes The Road and The Proposition--conjures an air of tense unease that doesn't let up at any point on the long, slow march to the episode's devastating conclusion. It's a cracking hour of TV, and the only major bad point we can think of is that once it's finished, you'll just feel… empty.
Shut Up And Dance (Season 3, Episode 3)
Image: Laurie Sparham/Netflix
'Shut Up And Dance' is one of the tensest episodes in Black Mirror, with the character of Kenny being blackmailed into doing a string of unusual and illegal things to prevent a video of him being released onto the internet. If you didn't cover your webcam before seeing this episode, then you definitely will after.
Hang The DJ (Season 4, Episode 4)
Image: Netflix
Offering a rare upbeat episode of Black Mirror, 'Hang the DJ' is just the pick-me-up you need after the grim finale of 'Crocodile.' Following the central pairing of Frank and Amy as they navigate the various pitfalls of relationships, 'Hang the DJ' is a smart and witty skewering of our dating-obsessed society. Perfectly cutting to the core of this central concept, Brooker analyses the various ways in which we allow our lives to be dominated by apps like Tinder. And while we've now been conditioned to expect a cruel twist from our Black Mirror conclusions, 'Hang the DJ's inevitable rug pull is refreshingly optimistic. It's funny and heartwarming in equal measure, and it gives us likeable characters that we can actually root for.
USS Callister (Season 4, Episode 1)
There's a lot to love about 'USS Callister,' from its loving homage of Star Trek to its winning sense of dark humour. Between the virtual simulation of fictional TV show Space Fleet and the real-world office politics of Infinity, 'USS Callister' has a lot going on. But it's a testament to both Brooker's canny knack for plot pacing, and an absolutely stellar ensemble cast--that featuring Jesse Plemons, Cristin Milioti and Jimmi Simpson--that Callister manages to hold a coherent story together. And from the opening Star Trek pastiche--complete with a classic 4:3 aspect ratio--to the thrilling finale, 'USS Callister' is an immensely enjoyable episode of Black Mirror.
White Bear (Season 2, Episode 2)
Image: Channel 4
A woman wakes up in a house with amnesia. People hunt her down and try to kill her, but the bystanders do nothing to help, instead just filming her on their phones. It turns out that the woman was complicit in the murder of a small girl, filming her death on her mobile phone, so her punishment is to live this day over and over again, forgetting her crime while running away, in fear of her life.
'White Bear' features one of the biggest twists in Black Mirror, and its shock ending was allegedly inspired by a fence Charlie Brooker saw at the filming location, making him frantically rewrite the episode in just two days.
Nosedive (Season 3, Episode 1)
Image: David Dettmann/Netflix
We live our lives online, posting our thoughts and photos so they can be rated by other people. But imagine if those ratings and opinions affected your real life. What if you had a rating that everyone could see, and immediately judge you on? What if that rating affected things like jobs, things you could buy, or even medical treatment? That's the reality in 'Nosedive,' one of Black Mirror's more thought-provoking episodes.
Fifteen Million Merits (Season 1, Episode 2)
Image: Giles Keyte/Channel 4
In 'Fifteen Million Merits,' the vast majority of the population are stuck in the rat race, endlessly cycling in order to earn "merits" to buy goods and services. The only way to escape is to enter a reality TV show called Hot Shot, where winners are able to escape the grind and live in a nicer place. But the path to fame isn't straightforward, and not everyone can make it.
'Fifteen Million Merits' cuts close to home, and it's a biting commentary on our obsession with using reality shows as a measure of a person's success in life.
The National Anthem (Season 1, Episode 1)
Image: Channel 4
In Black Mirror's first episode, 'The National Anthem,' a beloved Princess is kidnapped, and the only way to secure her release is for the Prime Minister to, ahem, copulate with a pig live on TV. Part political satire, part a devastating commentary on how social media and technology have changed the news cycle has to work, Black Mirror came out with a bang.
Or should that be a squeal?
The Entire History Of You (Season 1, Episode 3)
Image: Giles Keyte/Channel 4
If you ever feel like you tend to over-analyse situations or replay conversations in your head, then just be glad you don't have a Grain, because it will probably drive you mad. In 'The Entire History Of You,' this piece of tech allows its users to record everything they see and hear and replay these memories at will. Unfortunately for Liam, he kind of gets a bit obsessed with his Grain when he suspects that his wife is having an affair.
White Christmas (Special)
Image: Channel 4
Two men are stuck in a snowy outpost and tell each other stories of their past lives to pass the time. How did they end up at that outpost? What secrets will be uncovered? 'White Christmas' is perhaps one of the most ambitious episodes of Black Mirror, with three separate threads coming together to make one devastating storyline.
Black Museum (Season 4, Episode 6)
Image: Netflix
Season 4's finale, 'Black Museum,' offers up a trifecta of bleak parables that dig into the murky world of neural science. There's the grim violence of Dr Pain, the ethical quandary of Jack and Carrie, and the tragedy of poor old Clayton Leigh. At the center of them all is the mysterious figure of Rolo Haynes, whose roadside attraction, the titular Black Museum, is the place that houses all the episode's suspect technology. Played with a devilish charm by Douglas Hodge, Haynes is a total oddball of a character who slowly unveils to become the true villain of the episode.
Of course, you can't talk about 'Black Museum' without mentioning the hundreds of references to previous episodes of Black Mirror. There's Easter eggs from pretty much every episode--bar six that we couldn't find--among the various exhibits in the museum, and while trying to spot them all can become distracting, it's a thrill to make all the connections. While each story could easily stand as an episode on its own right, it's the smart way that Brooker ties them all together that makes this episode a true classic.
San Junipero (Season 3, Episode 4)
Image: Laurie Sparham/Netflix
This episode is so different to the usual Black Mirror fare in that it's got a happy ending. The town of San Junipero is a simulated reality in which you can upload your consciousness to live in, and even if you die in real life, you can live there forever. It's an uplifting tale, complete with an '80s backdrop, in which technology manages to bring two people together who otherwise wouldn't have met.
Come on, you knew Yorkie and Kelly's love story would be number one in this list.
It's been 15 years since Lara Croft last appeared on the big screen, but that will change in March, when the Tomb Raider reboot movie is released. The film stars Alicia Vikander as Lara, and a new trailer has now been released.
The trailer features plenty of the expected action, but it also puts the emphasis on Lara as a character, as she searches for her long-lost father on a remote island. And as with the first trailer that was released in September, and it lives up to director Roar Uthaug's earlier suggestion that the 2013 reboot game is a big influence. Check it out above.
Tomb Raider also stars Dominic West (The Wire) as Lara's father, Walton Goggins (Sons of Anarchy) as the villain, and Daniel Wu (Warcraft) as a ship captain who works with Lara on her adventure. It hits theaters on March 16, 2018.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly last year, Vikander spoke about taking on the role of Lara Croft and what would set her apart from both the Lara of the games, as well as Angelina Jolie's previous movie portrayal. "She has all the fierce, tough, curious, intelligent traits," she said. "But we've stripped away all of her experience. She hasn't gone on an adventure just yet. She thought she was a stuck up businessperson living in the modern youth culture of suburban London, but then this whole box of information. This is the beginning."
Nintendo distributed a regular stream of free items and Pokemon for Pokemon Sun and Moon in the months following their release, and it looks like the series' latest installments, Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, will likewise enjoy a lot of support over the next few months. The Pokemon Company is dubbing 2018 the "Year of Legendary Pokemon," with a ton of Legendary-themed Pokemon products and giveaways on the way this year.
Throughout 2018, Nintendo will give away free Legendary Pokemon for the series' seventh generation titles. Beginning in February, players can receive a new Legendary in Pokemon Sun, Moon, Ultra Sun, or Ultra Moon each month depending on which version you play. The Pokemon you can get and the games they debuted in are:
The first pair of Legendaries, Dialga and Palkia, will be available in the US exclusively from GameStop from February 2-28, while players in the UK will be able to receive them from participating Game stores. Players will need to redeem the download code they receive by May 23. Dialga and Palkia's levels and movesets will be different depending on which game you receive them in: the two Pokemon will both be level 100 in Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, while they'll be level 60 in the original Sun and Moon versions.
The trailer above shows off some familiar faces from the books and films, including Professors McGonagall, Snape, and Hagrid. The game will see you personalize your avatar and attend classes with these teachers, while outside of lessons you'll make friends and battle against rivals. It's set in the time between Harry Potter's birth and his enrolment at Hogwarts, but you'll be faced with some of the same tasks those students did--developing your skills will help you solve mysteries and unlock new locations, spells, and abilities.
The game's coming to iOS and Android this spring, with another Harry Potter game, Wizards Unite, also on the way this year. That separate title, developed by Pokemon Go studio Niantic, will see you roaming the real world collecting power-ups, defending locations, and exploring your environment. Warner Bros. has also teased that a new Harry Potter game is in the works for consoles, but nothing else is known about that project for now.
O'Shea Jackson Jr. has a promising acting career so far, despite only appearing in three released films (Straight Outta Compton, Ingrid Goes West, and now, Den of Thieves). He also has the Seth Rogen and Charlize Theron comedy Flarsky, not to mention Godzilla: King of Monsters, coming up.
But during an interview to promote Den of Thieves in LA this week, Jackson revealed his real dream: to work in video games.
We talked about that, plus training for the heist movie Den of Thieves, getting chased by kaiju in Godzilla: King of Monsters, his favorite WWE superstars, and more.
GameSpot: What are you playing lately?
O'Shea Jackson Jr.: NBA 2K, of course. You know, I like my VR Skyrim right now, and then Grand Theft Auto V just keeps f***ing updating itself so how could you not. That is like the grown-up version of The Sims.
You got a Switch?
No. I really just need it for Odyssey. I really want to play Odyssey. Nintendo always gives you one exclusive title that makes you have to get their s***.
I wanted to ask you about the training for the movie since you didn't have as many action scenes. Your stuff was more low key.
Yeah exactly. You know, when I read a script one time I don't like to keep going over it. If you know too much it can mess up your performance--at least for me, you know, I'm still trying to get my feet wet a little bit when it comes to acting. But I like staying in the realm of not knowing what's going to happen next.
I came to a realization during the training, of "Do I shoot my gun in this movie?" And then I realized, no, I'm just working to work. I'm all for team bonding, and chemistry is so important in a film, but you know, I didn't get to shoot this s***! I'm waiting to do something cool, and by the time we got ready for the [climax], they looked up the scenes, and they're like, "Yeah O'Shea, guess you can sit this part out." And it was the longest part of training! So yeah, I bitched.
You'll probably get to shoot in the next one though?
Lord willing, of course, I will always be ready for any film, but I got to kill like eight people in Godzilla.
Are you like a giant monster movie guy?
Oh dude, Godzilla is--I listed him as one of my five heroes as a kid.
Was that cool getting to work on that?
That was the biggest thing, I think personally, for me, in my life, to be a part of Godzilla--it made you feel like you're on the right path when you start connecting with things you've always loved. With Straight Outta Compton, I got to sit courtside at a Lakers vs. Thunder game. And Kobe came up to me, gripped me on the shoulder, and he said, "You finally made it, huh?' And it was just like, oh my--I've been waiting for my f***ing hero to tell me this my whole life!
And then my agent, Brad Slater--the man--he's The Rock's agent, so I got to go to Wrestlemania and meet The Rock and talk to him. I was like, OK, my dreams are happening kind of fast. I think I'm about to die or something. And then you get Godzilla. So it's really, you know, if I meet Sonic the Hedgehog some kind of way, life will be good. The only two people left are Sonic and Goku.
Super f***ing jolly giant. You know he's like 6'4", he's like a door.
Speaking of big dudes, were you ever actually scared of Gerard Butler when you were shooting some of those scenes with him, where he's like slapping you around?
No, no, never. I'm the new guy in more ways than one with the other thieves, and I really had to stand my own. I really needed to show that I'm here to play. You see actors, and a lot of times you have to get in that mode, you have to keep yourself there. You don't really like too much interaction, because you're trying to focus on however your character feels at that moment. And until you hear "cut" you don't like to break that. So what I was trying to do on set, I would show them that they were killing me and doing all that stuff, and making it look gruesome, and spitting everywhere, and hurling everywhere, and then when I hear cut, you know, I'm back to talking and normal.
So it would throw them off--I could see that it was like "This dude's f***in crazy!" And I love that. That was my psychological warfare. So to hear him say that in the press conference, it worked. During that scene where people were like "O'Shea, are you alright?" I'm like "Yeah, dude, I'm fine." You know? I watched WWF. I know what I'm doing. I've been choked out before--I'm a little brother! If I had to make a highlight reel of my career, that scene right there, I knew this was where I had to bring it. And if I can kill this like I see it in my head, it would mean a lot to me and a lot for me. So I'm glad I could make Gerard's big ass uncomfortable.
Was that the most intense scene you've done? Or is there something more intense yet to come, like in Godzilla or something else?
That's definitely the most intense scene I've done. Den of Thieves is by far the hardest film I've worked on. Well, I'm not gonna say "by far," Godzilla is right up there, because Godzilla we had a lot of--not as far as the performance, but there was just things that we had to deal with that were more challenging, like, you know, there's supposed to be this giant storm in Godzilla, so in the movie, it's three scenes, but when you're filming it, you're getting wet all day from a hose all day. Your feet are pruning, just for them to start peeling, and then when you get to your hotel, you have to come back and get wet again.
So it definitely had its hard days, but Den of Thieves, I really had to show my skills. I really had to show that I'm here to stay.
Did you have to do a lot of green screen stuff in Godzilla?
I said green screen, and I got there, and they were all blue! It's all blue screens. And it's hard running from s*** you can't see. You know, it's just more difficult to be like, "No, O'Shea, look at the [marker]!" You get wind and rain in your face, and you're trying to find it, so it's a lot of eyeline issues, but yeah, we still went through it. We had to run through epsom salt that looks like snow in the film, but its epsom salt because we're in Atlanta. It challenged my body more than my mind.
Have you seen any of it yet?
Just the dailies. They have this cool process, pre-vis, which is pre visuals, and they kind of have it mapped out, the whole scene mapped out, with the monsters in it, so you can kind of watch at first, but it looks like the old Goldeneye graphics, like from Nintendo 64, so everybody's a little blocky, everybody's a little pixelated, but you get the idea. And that's the only way that I've seen the film. So I'm excited about that. I'm just trying to get into Kong vs. Godzilla.
Do you want to do more comedy after Ingrid Goes West?
Hell yeah. I did Flarsky, with Seth Rogen and Charlize Theron. That's a comedy. I play Seth's best friend, I sold an app so I'm like a billionaire, so that's a cool role you'd want. And with stuff like Ingrid Goes West, I definitely like smart comedies that have a deeper meaning than what they're showing you, and Ingrid really had a message of what today's times are doing to society as far as safety and as far as mental health of others and how people have to go through a battle that we may not see every day. And I got to make out with t on the first day! So it was like yeah, I would f***in do Ingrid Goes West 1,000 times.
Who are your favorite wrestlers right now?
The Rock. Listen, The Rock is the great one, but I will say this for the record: The greatest WWE or F superstar is Shawn Michaels. Shawn Michaels through time has always been--HBK! I'm also a fan of Triple H--when he had long hair, not short hair--of course Taker--Vince you should have never let him lose to Lesner--I feel like that was the biggest mistake of the company if there's any I can list--and I feel that Stone Cold and The Rock are the top dogs, but HBK is the greatest of all time. So if I had to list it: Rock, Stone Cold, Taker, HBK, and I really don't want to give it to Triple H, but if I had to, I would say Randy Orton.
Are you up to date? Do you have Rumble picks?
Dude no, but I really want to see the lady Rumble. I found out that they're about to do, I guess the 25th anniversary of Raw or something, but it's gonna be Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler at the thing again, so that's dope. And Goldberg, shout out to Goldberg, for getting into the WWE hall of fame.
Do you want to do any work in video games?
Dude. I went to USC to screenwrite, and everybody hears that and thinks that I thought film. I want to write scripts for video games. That's my dream job. I'm just trying to get famous so people will listen to me in meetings. That's really it.
[Update 2] The Metal Gear Survive beta is now available on both PS4 and Xbox One. The beta runs through January 21 and features two maps, three missions, and live events, according to Konami. As described below, those who play the beta will receive in-game bonuses in the full version, should they decide to purchase it.
[Update] Konami has clarified on Twitter that, as of yet, the Metal Gear Survive beta is not available for PlayStation 4 in America. However, it is now available for both PS4 and Xbox One in all other regions.
Quick update everyone. Metal Gear Survive's beta is unfortunately not yet available for PS4 in the Americas. The beta is available in all other regions for PS4 and available globally on Xbox One.
Survive's beta will run from January 18-21 inclusive on both PS4 and Xbox One; publisher Konami says the beta will provide an opportunity "to jump into co-op mode to build, defend, and fight alongside friends online."
Those who participate in the beta will receive bonus items in the full game. These include a FOXHOUND name plate, a Metal Gear REX head accessory, and a bandana. It's unclear if there will be a way to unlock these without having played the beta, or if they'll be available at all in the PC version, which isn't receiving a beta.
Nintendo enjoyed a great deal of success throughout 2017 thanks to Switch, and that didn't change during December in the United States. Ahead of NPD Group publicly releasing its sales report for the month, Nintendo has shared some figures from it that paint a positive picture for not just Switch, but 3DS as well.
Switch was December's best-selling game system in the US, with 1.5 million units sold during the NPD's reporting period (which covered a total of five weeks). Life-to-date sales for the console now stand at 4.8 million in the US alone; Nintendo's press release reiterated what it claimed recently about how this makes Switch the fastest-selling system ever through its first 10 months.
As for 3DS, combined sales across the "3DS family," which includes the 2DS, reached 750,000 during the December report period. That was an increase of 27% compared with December 2016, and it marks the system's best-selling month in the US since December 2014. US lifetime sales for the 3DS family now stand at 21 million.
Nintendo also noted that combined sales for Switch, 3DS, and SNES Classic Edition were 2.6 million in December, meaning the classic micro console sold roughly 350,000 units. The three represented more than 50% of total hardware sales during the month.
On the software side, Nintendo also highlighted its platforms' games that cracked the NPD's sales charts. When looking on a per-game basis (meaning different versions of multiplatform games are counted individually), Super Mario Odyssey was No. 3 during December, while Mario Kart 8 Deluxe was No. 4, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was No. 9, Pokemon Ultra Sun and Moon were Nos. 13 and 14, and Splatoon 2 was No. 16. Earlier this month, Nintendo discussed the high attach rates of some of its first-person Switch titles, revealing that Super Mario Odyssey is the system's top seller in the US.
We'll have more on US sales during December once the NPD shares its full report. In the meantime, you can read all about Nintendo's surprising new cardboard-based Switch game, Nintendo Labo.
Following a relatively brief maintenance period, Epic Games has released the new 2.2.0 update for Fortnite on PC, PS4, and Xbox One. As detailed previously, it deals primarily with Battle Royale, adding a newly updated version of the map, pre-game voice chat, and more.
Updates to the map are the most significant component of the patch. New areas have been added, primarily to the western half of the map, which had been somewhat sparsely populated before now. This includes a new city section and underground mines. Existing areas also receive a makeover, with Epic providing more differentiation between the various biomes. As lead systems designer Eric Williamson said recently, "The swamp feels swampier, the mountains feel more mountain-y. Really, the different areas of the map feel more unique."
Epic has also rolled out a new level-streaming system. Although it doesn't directly have an effect on gameplay, Epic says it "enabl[es] a richer map and improved performance." Load times on consoles have been "greatly reduc[ed]" and there should be less hitching in general. A variety of visual improvements have also been implemented, with new water and grass/foliage effects now in place.
Other new features include the addition of voice chat in the pre-game lobby, an update to the killfeed to show the distance on sniper rifle kills, and a revamped version of the Scoped AR's sight. Another key change, the removal of friendly fire, was implemented recently, although it may only be a temporary measure as Epic evaluates what impact it has on the game.
The full patch notes can be found on Epic's website. Fortnite: Battle Royale is a free download, while access to the Save the World mode remains in paid early access.
Pokemon Go developer Niantic recently announced a new recurring event for the game called Community Days, which will be held every month and give players a chance to snag double bonuses and exclusive Pokemon. The inaugural Community Day event takes place this Saturday, on January 20, for players around the globe.
Unlike the Pokemon Go Fest and Safari Zone events that Niantic held in the US and across Europe last year, Community Days aren't situated at a specific location, but rather occur at a designated time, encouraging players to meet at local parks and other public places during that window to catch Pokemon together with other players. Saturday's Community Day takes place at the following times:
Asia-Pacific: Noon to 3:00 PM JST
Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and India: 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM UTC
The Americas and Greenland: 11:00 AM to 2:00 PM PST
Players will be able to earn double XP and other bonuses during the event, while Lure Modules will last for an extended three hours. Most notably, each Community Day will feature a special Pokemon that will only be available to catch for a few hours. These rare monsters will know a move they can't typically learn in the game. During this month's Community Day, players will have a chance to capture a Pikachu that knows Surf, just like the one you could obtain in the classic Pokemon Yellow.
In addition to the Community Days event, this month saw the arrival of a new Pokemon Go Legendary: Kyogre from Pokemon Sapphire. Kyogre marks the second Gen 3 Legendary to be added to the game, following Groudon, which was available from December to January 15. Kyogre will appear in Raid Battles at certain Gyms until February 14.
Niantic recently rolled out new updates for Pokemon Go that introduced an improved AR mode and a weather system. However, the developer also announced it will soon drop support for some older iOS devices such as the iPhone 5 and iPhone 5c. Those will no longer be compatible with Pokemon Go beginning February 28.
The art to a good heist movie is usually in revealing just the right amount of the heist itself, leaving the plan partially obfuscated and keeping audiences guessing how the crew will pull it off in the end. The other big factor, as any Ocean's 11 fan will tell you, is having a likable cast of characters the audience will root for, even as they break the law and maybe even endanger or harm innocent bystanders in the process.
Using those two criteria, Den of Thieves is only half successful. The heist itself--masterminded by Merrimen (Pablo Schreiber), Donnie (O'Shea Jackon Jr.), Levi (50 Cent), and Bosco (Evan Jones)--is popcorn-munching fun, as the crew orchestrates a complex and inventive infiltration of the Los Angeles Federal Reserve. These characters themselves, however, as well as Gerard Butler's gruff and dirty cop "Big Nick" Flanagan, are mostly anything but likable, despite some small attempts on the movie's part to humanize them.
Den of Thieves is bookended by two seat-gripping action scenes, the first opening the movie cold in a donut shop parking lot as Merrimen's crew hijacks an armored car. The rest of the movie is mostly spent simply observing as the characters plan the heist and Big Nick tracks their various moves. It culminates with a high-powered street level shootout that will make you sweat if you've ever daydreamed this exact nightmare while stuck in bumper to bumper traffic on the way home from work.
That's a quirk of living in Los Angeles, a setting Den of Thieves eagerly informs us is the bank robbery capital of the world (which maybe isn't true anymore, but whatever). The city certainly comes through as a character, though this isn't the cheesy version of LA we're used to seeing on the big screen--more like the parts you drive through on your way home from the airport. It's both refreshing and slightly depressing to see this side of LA onscreen.
The crew themselves all come from a military background, and the actors clearly put in some hard work training for the action scenes. It paid off; the shootouts are the most engrossing parts of the movie, and the physicality exhibited by Butler, Schreiber, and 50 Cent does a lot to make these scenes believable.
Den of Thieves' main problem will rear its head if you're hoping to identify or sympathize with any of the protagonists, on either side of the conflict. They're miserable saps, one and all, gruff and coarse and selfish as can be. Butler's character, in particular, is just a real piece of work, a drunk who cheats on his wife and kidnaps and abuses suspects without a moment's hesitation.
By the end you won't much care whether any of them make it through alive, especially when Schreiber's character sets up a massive SAW machine gun on the hood of his truck and starts chewing through gridlocked cars by the dozen. It's established earlier that these "elite" bank robbers only shoot "uniforms," not innocents, but that apparently goes out the window once they're cornered; the bystander body count in the scene must be astronomical, although the movie gets too squeamish in the end to show any of that collateral carnage.
Of course, every heist movie doesn't need to be helmed by dashing George Clooneys and charming Channing Tatums. Den of Thieves comes off feeling more realistic and less like a magic show than some of its contemporaries as a result. It's a depressing reality in which to exist. But as Butler and the movie's director and writer, Christian Gudegast, asserted during a recent press conference, you have to be half bad guy yourself to take down criminals at this level (the LA Sheriff's department's Major Crimes division). That's the idea, really: that the guys on both sides of this conflict aren't so different.
O'Shea Jackson Jr.'s Donnie is the one exception, besides the movie's scant female characters, who include the protagonists' wives, daughters, and prostitutes, plus victims of their crimes. Jackson plays a slightly more hapless member of the crew, outed early on by Big Nick and caught in the middle between both sides. He's instrumental to the heist, but he also gets slapped around quite a bit, and Ice Cube's son proves once again he has impressive acting skills, despite this only being his third movie ever (after playing his dad in Straight Outta Compton and Aubrey Plaza's landlord in Ingrid Goes West).
Den of Thieves is ultimately a gritty, realistic, engrossing LA heist movie with a couple of glaring flaws that will make it a little too difficult to stomach for some viewers. If watching super beefed up Gerard Butler and Pablo Schreiber go toe-to-toe in an ever-escalating gun-measuring contest of balls and wits is your ideal moviegoing experience, though, you'll likely find little to dislike.
The Good
The Bad
Heist is complex and exciting
Few likable characters
Action scenes feel grounded and realistic
Climactic scene of gun violence lacks realistic consequences
Great performances from Schreiber, Butler, and rest of the cast
PlayStation 4's latest system software update is available to download now, but don't expect it to do all that much. According to Sony, firmware update 5.05 "improves system performance." The patch weighs in at around 375 MB, and it's mandatory to install--just turn your PS4 on and the update should begin downloading automatically.
System performance is the subject of many PS4 updates, but an upcoming patch promises to be a little more substantial. Sony is currently taking registrations from players who want to beta test a "major" PS4 update in February, though we don't currently know what will be included.
The most recent big PS4 patch was update 5.0. It included new features based around the console's in-built streaming capabilities, as well as an enhanced Friends List, more versatile Quick Menu, and overhauled parental control features.
A lot of uncertainty currently hangs over the DC movie universe--there are currently three movies scheduled for release, but many more in various stages of development. One of these is the standalone Flash movie, which will focus on the Flashpoint story from DC's comic books. The film has already lost two directors, but it has now been reported that replacements have been found.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein are in talks to direct Flashpoint. Daley and Goldstein wrote the screenplay for Marvel's Spider-man: Homecoming, as well as the comedy hit Horrible Bosses. As directors they also helmed 2015's Vacation and the upcoming comedy thriller Game Night.
The title Flashpoint was confirmed at San Diego Comic-Con in July 2017. It's a reference tothe 2011 Flash comic event that put Barry Allen, The Flash, in a very different universe than his own.
When Disney bought Lucasfilm in 2012, fans had much to celebrate, not least that a new series of movies in the blockbuster franchise was on the way. There was however one decision that many fans were less happy with--the decision that the Expanded Universe of spin-off novels, comic books, TV shows, and video games was no longer to be part of Star Wars canon. Now, Star Wars Story Group member Leland Chee has spoken about what he believes was one of the main reasons for this decision.
The Star Wars Story Group is a division of Lucasfilm dedicated to overseeing ongoing franchise storylines and maintaining continuity. Speaking to Syfy's Fandom Files podcast, Chee suggested a reason why the entire 30-year-old Expanded Universe was rebranded as Star Wars Legends, and no longer part of "official" franchise story chronology. It's down to the death of one central character--everyone's favorite Wookiee, Chewbacca.
"For me it came down to simply that we had killed Chewbacca in Legends--a big moon had fallen on him," he said, referencing the 1999 novel The New Jedi Order: Vector Prime, in which Chewie sacrifices himself to save Han. "Part of that [original decision] was Chewbacca, because he can't speak and just speaks in growls, he was a challenging character to write for in novels. Publishing had decided they needed to kill somebody, and it was Chewbacca."
"But if you have the opportunity to bring back Chewbacca into a live action film, you're not gonna deprive fans that," he added. "There's no way that I'd want to do an Episode VII that didn't have Chewbacca in it and have to explain that Chewbacca had a moon fall on his head. And if we were going to overturn a monumental decision like that, everything else was really just minor in comparison."
Chee subsequently clarified that this wasn't an official Lucasfilm statement on the decision to retire the Expanded Universe. "Chewbacca and the Legends decision is my personal rationalization," he tweeted. "The decision was made long before I joined the Story Group."
A new patch is available now for the PC edition of PUBG. This is not the biggest or most significant of patches following the 1.0 release in December, but it does include some notable changes and fixes. Starting off, it includes a client optimisation that should improved general performance when a lot of players are in the same area simultaneously. If players are bunched up like this, you can expect there would be a big firefight, so it's good to know performance should now be better in such an important time in your gameplay session.
There are also two bug fixes included with the new PUBG PC patch, the first of which fixes an issue where your character could be "instantly stopped and adjusted." The second fix is for a problem where the way your character moved during a replay seemed off. These are minor but welcome changes, and it's good to see developer PUBG Corp. continue to release updates to address the feedback fans have been sending in.
In the developer's blog post announcing this patch, the studio also said it hopes to provide an update on what's next for PUBG in the near future. That's all PUBG Corp. had to say on the matter; we will report back when those details are announced.
Tune in as we check out the multiplayer beta for Metal Gear Survive.
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